William Perlman/The Star-LedgerU.S. coach Bob Bradley still uncertain if he will return to coach the National team. Either way, the U.S. should have more potential home-grown candidates for the job.

It seems pretty apparent that if U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati wanted Bob Bradley to return as national team coach the deal would have been finalized immediately following the World Cup.

Bradley, to his credit, is not sitting around waiting for Gulati to give up his seemingly futile pursuit of Juergen Klinsmann. Bradley is being proactive, letting his representatives inquire about the Aston Villa job, knowing there’s a chance he could still be rehired for another four-year cycle or even take the D.C. United job in the offseason, should he need a fallback in Major League Soccer.

But Bradley’s plight is not the issue here. He will be fine wherever he lands. The real issue is that after two decades as a world soccer power, why does the United States have a dearth of quality candidates to take the job?

In other countries, when players retire, many of them go into coaching. Even some of the greats of the game — Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Diego Maradona, to name just a few — have gone that route. Whether they were successful or not is not the issue. The point is, there never seems to be a lack of candidates for the elite jobs.

It is rare around the world when a successful coach does not have a background as a player. Yet in the United States, we tend to create lifetime coaches, men who have moved up the ranks from college to the pros to the international level.

Since 1995, the U.S. national team has had three coaches: Steve Sampson, Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley. All were longtime college coaches — Sampson’s Santa Clara played Arena’s Virginia for the 1989 NCAA Championship at Rutgers Stadium — who eventually made the jump to MLS.

The question the U.S. soccer fanbase needs to ask itself now is this. Who does Gulati turn to if Klinsmann and Bradley say no?

If you go down the logical list of successful career coaches, the answer might be Sigi Schmid, who won three NCAA Championships at UCLA, an MLS Cup with the Galaxy and has had two stints with the U.S. Under-20 team.

No offense to Sigi, but is that the best we can do? You could throw in Peter Nowak, who won an MLS Cup as a player with the Fire and coached at D.C. United for three years, but he hasn’t even finished his first year coaching the expansion Philadelphia Union yet.

The problem in this country is that the great players from the past two decades have spurned coaching for other ventures. Tab Ramos has his soccer academy, Tony Meola is involved in business outside soccer, Claudio Reyna is with the U.S. Soccer Federation, Alexi Lalas, John Harkes, Marcelo Balboa and Eric Wynalda have gone the television analyst route. All but Meola and Reyna are in the Hall of Fame, and they should be there shortly.

If you look at the 16 coaches in Major League Soccer, half are foreign. You also have Arena, Schmid and FC Dallas’ Schellas Hyndman, who coached at the college level for 31 years.

Arena entered MLS in its inaugural year in 1996 and Bradley left Princeton the same year to be his assistant at D.C. United. Sampson eventually made his way to the Galaxy years later.

Very few coaches have gone from U.S. player to a coaching career in MLS. Of the current coaches, only Peter Vermes at Kansas City, Jason Kreis at Real Salt Lake, Preki at Toronto FC, Dominic Kinnear at Houston, Martin Vasquez at Chivas USA and Ben Olsen at D.C. United played for the U.S. national team.

Vasquez (seven caps) and Kreis (14) were only with the national team a short time. Olsen had 37 caps over nine years but is an interim coach at D.C. and just retired as a player, while Preki was 33 when he made his national team debut and only played 28 times over four years.

Only Kinnear (54 caps, nine goals in five years) and Vermes (66 caps, 11 goals in eight years) had legitimate national team careers, with Kinnear, who won two MLS Cups as Houston coach, the best candidate.

There are others still in the game ... Chris Henderson, Jeff Agoos, Eddie Pope, Thomas Dooley and Earnie Stewart, to name a few, but they are in management, or the players’ association, or with youth clubs or involved with teams in other countries. Only Cobi Jones, who is an assistant coach with the Galaxy, is in position to move up the ranks.

The fact is, Gulati might want to have a distinguished former U.S. international coach the national team but, quite frankly, there is nobody with the least bit of experience to choose from.

ETC

United States midfielder Sacha Kljestan scored his first goal for Anderlecht, a header in the 32nd minute, in a 3-0 victory over Lokeren in a Belgian league game. ... The U.S. women’s national team will face China twice in October in preparation for CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. The first game will be Oct. 2 at the Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium, home to the WPS’ Atlanta Beat, and the second game is Oct. 6 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., home to the Philadelphia Union. ... Mexico will host CONCACAF qualifying for the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Qualifying will take place in Cancun and Playa del Carmen from Oct. 28 to Nov. 8. The United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Haiti will play in Group B in Playa del Carmen, and Canada, Guyana, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago will play in Group A in Cancun. The top two teams qualify for the World Cup, and the No. 3 team plays Europe’s No. 5 team in a playoff for another berth. ... Toronto FC and the Crew (today) and Real Salt Lake and the Sounders (tomorrow) are in action in the CONCACAF Champions League. ... The second playoff legs of the European Champions League and Europa Cup will be played this week. ... Former Real Salt Lake forward Yura Movsisyan scored for Randers in a 2-1 victory over Lyngby in a Danish league game. ... The NCAA announced that the 2011 Division I men’s College Cup will be played at Regions Park in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 9 and 11. This year’s College Cup will be held in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Dec. 10 and 12. ... The Spanish and Italian leagues begin this weekend. ... FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he is considering eliminating ties in World Cup group games. Blatter said the change would make the tournament more interesting if there was sudden-death overtime and penalty kicks in group play. ... Sevilla defender Sebastien Squillaci underwent medical tests yesterday in London and could finalize his move to Arsenal today. ... Midfielder Paul Scholes scored his 150th career goal for Manchester United in Sunday’s 2-2 tie with Fulham. ... Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic signed a new four-year contract. ... Aston Villa finally gave in and sold midfielder James Milner to Manchester City. ... William Gallas left Arsenal on a free transfer and signed with Tottenham. ... Neymar, who plays for Santos in Brazil, rejected a $39 million move to Chelsea. ... Midfielder Alberto Aquilani is joining Juventus on a season-long loan from Liverpool. ... West Bromwich Albion signed Nigeria striker Peter Odemwingie from Lokomotiv Moscow. ... Former Netherlands midfielder Edgar Davids, who hasn’t played in two years, joined Crystal Palace. To help ease the club’s financial problems, Davids, 37, will be paid only for the games he plays. ... Werder Bremen signed Brazilian midfielder Wesley from Santos to a four-year contract. Wesley is expected to fill the role of Mesut Oezil, who signed with Real Madrid following a fantastic World Cup for Germany. ... Rafael Sobis, Leandro and Giuliano scored goals in the second half when Internacional defeated Chivas Guadalajara, 3-2, to win its second Copa Libertadores title on 5-3 aggregate. ... Lionel Messi had a hat trick as Barcelona won a record ninth Spanish Supercup beating Sevilla, 4-0, in the second leg for a 5-3 aggregate victory. ... Inter Milan, which won three trophies last season, picked up another. Samuel Eto’o scored twice when Inter won the Italian Super Cup with a 3-1 victory over AS Roma. On Friday, Inter will play Atletico Madrid in the European Super Cup. ... Boca Juniors, Diego Maradona’s former club and one of the most storied teams in the world, is in danger of relegation for the first time in its history this season following a 0-2-1 start. Relegation in Argentina’s top flight is decided by a percentage table of results from the past three seasons and Boca has had two mediocre years in a row. None of Argentina’s five big clubs — River Plate, Boca Juniors, Independiente, Racing Club and San Lorenzo — has been relegated since the average points system was introduced in 1983. ... Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Andres D’Alessandro, high-profile players who were left out of Argentina’s World Cup squad by Maradona, have been called up by his interim replacement Sergio Batista for a friendly Sept. 7 against Spain. ... Yugoslavian legend Stjepan Bobek, who scored a club-record 403 goals in 468 games for Partizan Belgrade from 1945-58, died at the age of 86. Bobek also scored 38 goals in 63 matches for the Yugoslavian national team. ... Paul the Octopus has been appointed as an ambassador to England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Hey, why not? He had a better tournament than England’s players did. ... The winner of UEFA’s Club Footballer of the Year will be announced Thursday. The short list includes goalkeepers Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Hugo Lloris (Lyon) and Victor Valdes (Barcelona); defenders Lucio (Inter Milan), Maicon (Inter Milan) and Gerard Pique (Barcelona); midfielders Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich) and Wesley Sneijder (Inter Milan); and forwards Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Diego Milito (Inter Milan) and Wayne Rooney (Manchester United). ... FIFA announced that world football’s two most prestigious Player of the Year awards will merge into a single award called the FIFA Ballon d’Or. The existing European Player of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year awards will cease to exist and the new award will be given for the first time in January. France Football created the European Footballer of the Year award — the Ballon d’Or, or Golden Ball — in 1956 from a poll of European journalists. The award was later opened to players of any nationality playing in Europe, then to those from any club worldwide. The FIFA World Player of the Year began in 1991 and was voted on by national team coaches and captains. Part of the reason for the change was the duplication of winners. In the past five years, the same player — Ronaldinho, Fabio Cannavaro, Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi — have won both awards. The new award will be voted on by journalists, coaches and captains from FIFA’s 208 national members. Blatter said the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award would continue under a new name yet to be determined. FIFA and France Football also will create new awards for the world’s best coach and best technical director.